🔗 Share this article

An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they do the "pre-race" wiggle on the start line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I must adjust my device. So does the person next to me.

The person in the line sighs. I won't start until… yes! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's challenging to see a person without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who rely on them.

This is a booming, massive industry. Brands like Apple Watch lead the market, featuring an broad range of diverse models to fit a variety of needs. Depending on how high tech the model you go for, costs can vary between an affordable sum to a small fortune.

"It drives me insane, I'm unable to relax."

"It provides solace… It's like a supporter supporting me."

"Please don't notify me about a poor sleep."

A handful of the comments I've had from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I question what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My current opinion on mine? At this moment, annoying. It's telling me my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us fasten these small devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, apparently at ease with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

It's tricky to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we scrutinise a true reflection of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just add to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a bit preoccupied with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she values how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be notified I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"It's possible, I suppose, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can monitor blood flow, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to interpret these readings is not straightforward. The expert worries that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying patient behaviour concurs. Research into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced greater stress and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate went up. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their anxiety increased again.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."